Well, let’s — let’s start back from there and let’s
talk about where we are. This is, of course, President Obama’s
greatest failing, from a foreign policy standpoint, which is he
recognized the gravest threat that America and the world faced as
— and faced was a nuclear Iran and he did not do what was
necessary to get Iran to be dissuaded from their nuclear folly.
What he should have done is speak out when dissidents took to the
streets and say America is with you and work on a covert basis to
encourage the dissidents. Number two, he should have put — put
in place crippling sanctions against Iran. But instead of
getting Russia, for instance, to when — when he gave in our
— our missile defense system, to agree to — to stand with
those crippling sanctions, he gave Russia what they wanted, their
number one foreign policy objective, and got nothing in
return...
... Finally, the president should have built a credible threat of
military action and made it very clear that the United States of
America is willing, in the final analysis, if necessary, to take
military action to keep Iran from having a nuclear weapon. Look,
one thing you can know and that is if we reelect Barack Obama,
Iran will have a nuclear weapon. And if we elect Mitt Romney, if
you elect me as the next president, they will not have a nuclear
weapon...
... Well, it’s worth putting in place crippling sanctions.
It’s worth working with the insurgents in the country to
encourage regime change in the country. And if all else fails,
if after all of the work we’ve done, there’s nothing else we
could do besides mil — take military action, then of course you
take military action. It is unacceptable for Iran to have a
nuclear weapon. We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
This term unacceptable has been applied by several presidents
over history. And our current president has made it very clear
that he’s not willing to do those things necessary to get Iran
to be dissuaded from their nuclear folly. I will take a different
course. I will make sure that the sanctions, diplomatic
pressure, economic pressure and support of insurgents within the
country help them become dissuaded to get away from their nuclear
ambition.
January 7, 2012: Romney speaking at the ABCNews - WMURTV GOP
Debate at St. Anselm College, New Hampshire
• Huckabee is in full support of having diplomatic talks with
Iran. According to him the administration should not take the
military option from Iran off the table, nor would Huckabee
himself do it. The military option would become viable only if
the US had exhausted other options.
• According to Mike Huckabee the US is proceeding down a one
way track where Iran is concerned and leading to 'armed
confrontation.'
• Huckabee strongly believes that the negotiations held
recently with Iran in regard to Iraq were narrowly focused and
did not explore the complete range of possibilities.
• Mike Huckabee reiterates that many Iranians are well disposed
towards the US. He provides evidence of this by commenting "we
should remember that on 9/11, while there was dancing in the
street in other parts of the Muslim world, there were candlelight
vigils and mourning in Tehran."
• Huckabee was quoted saying that Iran helped the US during the
first invasion of Afghanistan, especially with the Northern
Alliance.
• Huckabee whole heartedly welcomes the new sanctions against
Iran since no direct business is done between Iran and the US,
hence there will be no impact unless it is honored by other
countries.
• In Huckabee's opinion, if China and Russia do not support the
United Nations sanctions it would remain weak thus creating
greater hope from Iran's biggest trading partner, the European
Union. He feels that Nicholas Sarkozy, the President of France,
would become a willing ally in this attempt.
